Musical-instrument bellows.



R. A. GALLY.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT BELLOWS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. I7, 1917.

1,284,886. Patented Nov. 12, 1918;.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT A. GALLY, 0F CINCINNATI, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE BALDWIN COMPANY, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

MUSICAL-INSTRUMENT BELLOWS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 12, 1918.

Application filed December 17, 1917. Serial No. 207,639.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT A. GALLY, a citizen of the United States, and residing at Cincinnati, county of Hamilton, and State of Ohio, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Musical-Instrument Bellows, of which the following is a specification.

In this applicants prior Patent #1,034,098 is shown a bellows reservoir having an interrupting means at one end of its moving board, and a spring intermediate said interrupting means and the other end of the said board, the said spring being positioned either midway of the length of that board, or away from the midway position as shown in Figure 3 when decided change of tension is desired from one motion of the board to the other. In this applicants more recent Patent, #1,233,864, the interrupting means is set at a distance from the end of the board. In both these prior patents the reservoirs were to be understood to be of the usual rectangular shape surface of the moving board, whereas in the present invention the moving board of the reservoir is of unequal width of surface at its two parts between which the interrupting means is placed, thus creating a new and very desirable manner of varying the speed of motion of the moving board of a bellows reservoir and degree of variation of air tension for purposes of air control for expression effects in musical instruments, being especially useful for pneumatic piano playing apparatus. The varied width bellows also assists placing in a piano case.

In the drawings Fig. 1 is a plan view of the bellows reservoir, showing the upper face of its moving board; and Figs. 2, 3 and 4 are front views of the same reservoir taken on vertical longitudinal section aa of Fig. 1 and at various successive degrees of its collapse; and Fig. 5 is a modified position of the spring in the same style of bellows, and Figs. 6, 7 and 8 show different positions of spring and interrupting means in the same varied width style of bellows, Figs. 5, 6, and 7 being similar sectional views.

The moving board 1 has its end 2 wider than its end 3, and intermediate its two ends is a block or other interrupting means 4 so positioned that the moving board 1 is free to move to some extent before contacting with the said interrupting means 4, but the said moving board 1 having its motion changed after contact with the said interrupting means 4. The interrupting means 4 of Figs. 1 to 5 is set nearer to the narrow end 3 of the moving board 1 than to the wide end 2, which secures a greater air capacity from the movement of the wide end 2 of the moving board 1 after the board 1 has contacted the interrupting means 4 than if that means were set nearer to the wide end of the moving board 1 than to the narrow end 3 of that board 1, as shown in Fig. 6, the narrow end portion of the board 1 in that showing being the one to secure the air capacity after the board 1 has contacted the interrupting means 4.

Instead of the varied width moving board 1 having the interrupting means 4 intermediate its wide and narrow parts 2 and 3, such interrupting means can be placed at the narrow end 3 as in Fig. 7, or at the wide end 2 as in Fig. 8, securing difierent variations of air capacity and speed of change thereof at different positions bf movement of the moving board 1 than by the intermediate positions of Figs. 1 to 6, and the spring 5 can be so placed as to secure a first movement of the narrow end 2 as in Figs. 1 to 4, or of both ends together as in Figs. 5, 7 and 8, or of the wide end first as in Fig. 6, the spring 5 being correspondingly positioned according to the respective area of surface of the moving board 1 in each direction lengthwise of the board from the spring.

It is apparent that with one end of the board 1 wider than the other spring 5 must be set proportionately nearer to the wide end 2 than to the narrow end 3 to secure an equal motion of the two ends when uninterrupted by the means 4, as shown in Figs. 5, 7 and 8, and that any uninterrupted advance movement of one end before the other must be determined by the setting of the spring 5 from that position toward the end that is to have the later movement.

The varied width moving board 1 may be employed without the interrupting means 4, or with the slanted setting of the moving board as in this applicants prior Patent #1,056,093, and may have the spring 5 set for the unbalanced condition of the moving board 1 as in Figs. 1 to 4 and 6, to secure peculiar and useful variations of air capacities and tensions, and speed of variations thereof, as the present invention lies in the novel feature of a varied width moving board 1 of the reservoir of a musical instrument, used with interrupting means, or with spring means set out of balance with the average area of the irregular shaped board, or combinations of such interrupting means and such peculiar unbalanced position of the spring means, and also in the novel positions of the interrupting means or of the spring, with any bodily moving reservoir board.

Pumpers wider at one end than the other are old in the art with Peloubet, #496,952, but no such shape has been used for bellows reservoirs having bodily movable boards, or intended for variable air tension, and the purpose of the present novel use for such reservoirs is the opposite of that of Peloubet or other prior constructions, the present aim being to secure extra variation of air capacity or tension, while that of Peloubet was to secure steady service.

The varied width, diverging sides, or other suitable irregular shape of bellows reservoir also aids the placing in a case 6 of a grand piano or the like having braces 7 and S therein, which braces as 7 and S are ordi' narily at an angle to the main line a-a of the case, and these braces as 7 and 8 usually diverge in direction of their main dimensions, as shown in Fig. 1.

WVhat is claimed as the invention herein set forth, is

1. A musical instrument bellows reservoir having a bodily movable board wider at its one end part than at its other end part, and a spring opposed to the motion of the said board.

2. A musical instrument bellows reservoir having a bodily movable board wider at its one end part than at its other end part, and a spring opposed to the motion of the said board, the spring engaging said board nearer to the wider end than to the narrower end of said board.

3. A musical instrument bellows reservoir having a bodily movable board wider at its one end part than at its other end part, and a spring opposed to the motion of the said board, the spring engaging said board intermediate two different extents of area of said board.

4. A musical instrument bellows reservoir having a bodily movable board wider at its one end part than at its other end part, and :1 spring opposed to the motion of the said board at a position nearer to one said end of the said board than to the other said end, and with greater area of the board toward one end from said spring than toward the other end.

5. A musical instrument bellows reservoir having a bodily movable board wider at its one end part than at its other end part, and a spring opposed to the motion of the said board at a position nearer to the wider end of the said board than to the narrow end of the said board, and with lesser area of board between the place of opposition of said spring and the wide end of the board than the remaining area. i

6. A piano case having braces disposed within its outer dimensions and diverging in their directions, and a space between said braces, and a bellows reservoir positioned within said space and between said braces, two sides of the said reservoir diverging in similar direction to the divergence of the said braces.

7. A piano case having braces disposed within its outer dimensions and diverging in their directions, and a space between said braces, and a bellows reservoir positioned within said space and between said braces, the two ends ofsaid reservoir being of different widths, the wider end positioned in the wide space between the more widely diverged parts of the said braces.

8. A piano case having a brace disposed within its outer dimensions, and a bellows reservoir of polygonal sides. two of said sides diverging one to the other and one of said sides adjacent to and similar in direction with the adjacent line of the said brace.

9. A piano case having a brace disposed within its outer dimensions, and a bellows reservoir of outline having two lines thereof diverging, one of its said diverging lines adjacent to and similar in direction with the adjacent line of the said brace.

ROBT. A. GALLY. Witnesses P. J. HnNeon, NORMA Hnrsnn.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

